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City, county should look into helping fund Humane Society

The Jackson-Madison County Humane Society had to recently make the decision to suspend the organization’s cruelty investigations and off-site call to check on animals reported to be off their leashes or mistrea

City, county should look into helping fund Humane Society

The Jackson-Madison County Humane Society recently decided to suspend the organization’s cruelty investigations and to no longer answer off-site calls to check on animals reported to be off their leashes or mistreated.

Leadership of the organization said it is no longer feasible to provide such services due to the staff size at the Humane Society.

For decades, the Humane Society had helped do the investigations free of charge for the city and county when they received calls from residents, but it has become too much of a strain on the Humane Society’s five employees — four who work with the animals and one receptionist.

Each call requires two members of the staff to leave the Humane Society and investigate. Each call takes an hour or more, time that, according to Humane Society leaders, would be better spent caring for the 80-120 animals the Humane Society has on a given day.

Volunteer Lynn Caldwell hopes the city of Jackson and Madison County will begin to fund her organization. If the two bodies are able to agree on a joint-funding resolution, the Humane Society would be able to more effectively support the city and county, and more animal lives would be spared.

We wish this wasn’t an issue and people treated their animals responsibly. But the fact remains that some people mistreat animals, and it takes the help of others to make sure the animals are put in a safe environment.

We believe it would be worthwhile for the city and county to at least explore whether a joint effort to fund the Humane Society would be posible. We know from previous investigations by this newspaper that our municipal animal control efforts are in need of improvement. Perhaps this could be the answer to help improve the care of unwanted animals and the pet adoption process.

The joy and love of pet ownership can be immeasurable.

While the city and county should explore funding the Humane Society, it would also be good for each of us to do our part - in caring for our pets and in contributing to nonprofit efforts such as those provided by the Humane Society.

Each year the Humane Society has two major fundraisers, the Fur Ball, which was held in March, and Whine & Dine, which will be held July 18 at the Aeneas Building. Tickets may be purchased at: Wagging Tail Resort, Signature Boutique, Edenton Etc., Antonia’s Paw Spa and Parkway Animal Hospital.

We encourage you to help support the Humane Society by either attending one of its fundraisers or by making a donation at any time of the year.

OTHER VIEWS

America needs safe, reliable passenger rail

Reprinted from New Bern Sun Journal

Less than a day after a passenger train derailed in Philadelphia, killing eight people and blocking lines up and down the Eastern Seaboard, a U.S. House panel voted to cut Amtrak’s budget by $252 million, or one-fifth.

True, the cuts were on capital improvements, not safety features. Still, this vote shows the short-sightedness that is crippling transportation.

America needs passenger trains, but for the most part, we don’t have them.

Even where train service is available, the cars are often old, the tracks rickety and the equipment mostly outdated.

Americans who think we’re the most advanced nation on Earth need to travel more. In Europe, in Brazil, in Japan or China, they’ll see slick modern trains in beautiful, smoothly run stations, cruising at speeds of 125 mph or more between cities. By contrast, some of our rail terminals, and even airports, seem like bus stations.

OK, our population is less dense and far more spread out than most of those countries. Also, their governments subsidize their railroads heavily. They think it’s worth the cost, reducing urban congestion, cutting pollution and taking thousands of cars off congested roads.

Train travel may become even more important as our nation ages, keeping options alive for elderly people who cannot drive. Before that can happen, though, we’re going to have to fix up the old, broken rail system we have now.

Conservative estimates of that price tag have gone as high as $21 billion.

Adding high-speed trains and tracks would be even more expensive. Still, we found the money to build the interstate highway system.

We found the billions to launch communications satellites. Surely we can afford more than a Third World rail network.

In the past decade, ridership on U.S. railroads has increased from 24 million to 31 million per year, even with all the headaches. If we build them, they will ride.

TENNCARE MISERY METER

Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey’s, House Speaker Beth Harwell’s and the Tennessee General Assembly’s lack of leadership and urgency and failure to expand TennCare under the Affordable Care Act are bringing misery to an estimated 280,000 Tennesseans who could have received health insurance, including an estimated 30,000 veterans. Meanwhile, the financial stability of hospitals is at risk, and workers could lose their jobs. It is costing Tennesseans an estimated $2.5 million per day. The loss to date is: